Overview

About the program

Quality information is essential to all aspects of today's healthcare system. Health Information Management (HIM) is the body of knowledge and practice that ensures the availability of health information to facilitate real-time healthcare delivery and critical health-related decision making for multiple purposes across diverse organizations, settings, and disciplines. HIM professionals play a critical role in maintaining, collecting and analyzing the data that doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers rely on to deliver quality healthcare. They are experts in managing patient health information and medical records, administering computer information systems and coding the diagnosis and procedures for healthcare services provided to patients and more. Health information management (HIM) professionals work in 40 different settings under 125 different job titles. They often serve in bridge roles, connecting clinical, operational, and administrative functions.

What is HIM?

Program format(s)

Both the degree and certificate programs are completed online.

Degree Option

Health information technicians fill a wide variety of roles in health information management, quality management, information systems, revenue cycle, and more within the healthcare industry.  HI techs are responsible for ensuring healthcare data is complete, accurate, timely, and available to internal and external users.  This is a two-year (5 semesters) full-time degree schedule with a mixture of core health information technology, medical, communications, and information technology courses.  There is a required professional practice experience, which provides professional development in the modern workplace.  During the final course of the program, students will apply to take the Registered Health Information Technician Exam through the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA, 233 N. Michigan Ave., 21st Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60601-5800, www.ahima.org).  The program can be completed on a part-time basis, and the degree program is fully online.

Certification

Medical billing and coding professionals use various classification systems to code and categorize patient information for insurance reimbursement purposes, databases, and registries and to maintain medical and treatment histories. This is a one-year (three semester) full time certificate schedule.  After completing the certificate program, students are eligible to sit for coding or billing credentialing exams through the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC, 2233 S Presidents Rd, Suite F, Salt Lake City, Utah 84120, 800-626-2633, www.aapc.com), a coding credential through the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) or the Certified Revenue Cycle Representative (CRCR) credential through the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA, 3 Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 600, Westchester, IL 60154-5732, www.hfma.org).  This program can be completed on a part-time basis, and the certificate program is fully online.

Accreditation

The Health Information Management accreditor of Marion Technical College is the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). The College’s accreditation for the associate degree in health information management has been reaffirmed through 2021-2022. All inquiries about the program’s accreditation status should be directed by mail to CAHIIM, 200 East Randolph Street, Suite 5100, Chicago, IL, 60601; by phone at (312) 235-3255; or by email at info@cahiim.org.

Certificate Option

Medical Billing and Coding Certificate (CCA, CPC-A, CPMA, CPB, CRCR). This certificate program is online.

Medical Billing and Coding Technicians or Health Information Technicians organize and manage health information data. They ensure that the patient information is high quality, accurate, accessible, and secure in both paper and electronic health records systems. Using various classification systems, they code and categorize patient information for insurance reimbursement purposes, databases, and registries and to maintain medical and treatment histories. After completing the certificate program, one is eligible to sit for a coding/billing credentialing exam through the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC), a coding credential through the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) or the Certified Revenue Cycle Representative (CRCR) credential through the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA).

The Medical Biller/Coder or Health Information Technician fields is growing faster than average. According to the US Bureau of Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, this area of healthcare has a 15% growth outlook through 2024 and is expected to increase as the population ages. (BLS, September 2019).

Occupational Certification Opportunities

• Industry Certification: CCA (Certified Coding Assistant), CCS-P, CCA, CPC
• National Health Career Association (NHA): Certified Billing & Coding Specialist (CBCS)

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Learning Outcomes

• Review health records and verify completeness, accuracy, and appropriateness of data and data sources according to requirements and standards.
• Code, classify, and index diagnoses and procedures for the purpose of reimbursement, standardization, retrieval and statistical analysis.
• Actively apply the reimbursement policies and procedures in the use of clinical data, issues and systems and perform data quality reviews to validate code assignments as well as the completion of the UB-04 and CMS-1500.
• Collect, compute, analyze, interpret, and present statistical data related to healthcare services, including quality management, utilization management, risk management, medical research, disease registries, clinical indices.
• Apply legal principles, policies, regulations and standards for the control, use, and dissemination of healthcare information.
• Use software applications and technology in the completion of Health Information Management processes.
• Apply principles of supervision and leadership and the tools used to effectively manage human, financial, and physical resources.
• Recognize and problem solve situations within the healthcare environment.
• Participate in the planning, design, selection, implementation, integration, testing, evaluation, and support for EHRs.
• Use appropriate electronic or imaging technology for data/record storage.
• Query and generate reports to facilitate information retrieval using appropriate software.

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Career Opportunities

• Health Information Technicians
• Medical Billers
• Medical Coders
• Data Entry Technicians
• Claims Processing Technicians
• Accounts Receivable/Follow-Up Representatives
• Data Analysts
• Cancer Registrars
• Trauma Registrars

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Application Requirements - Limited Enrollment

• MTC Application for Admission and nonrefundable application fee.
• Final high school transcript (or GED results) and college transcripts (if applicable).
• A minimum 2.5 accumulative grade point average (GPA) in high school or college-level courses (whichever is most recent).
• Completed Health Information Technology application.

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Certificate Application Requirements - Limited Enrollment

• MTC Application for Admission and nonrefundable application fee.
• Final high school transcript (or GED results) and college transcripts (if applicable).
• Demonstrate college-readiness by achieving the required minimum score on a placement test, successfully completing any required college foundation courses, or satisfying other measures including but not limited to high school coursework, previous college coursework, samples of work, etc.
• A minimum 2.5 accumulative grade point average (GPA) in high school or college-level courses (whichever is most recent).
• Completed Medical Billing and Coding program application.

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